The National Music Centre is an urban musical instrument that dynamically responds in colour and scale to its contents and surroundings. Linked to the historic King Edward Hotel, the new building is an architectural intervention that renews the Hotel, belonging both to its surroundings and respecting the context from which it grows.

The building envelope acts as a skin of clear and smoked glass that ties all the parts together, as it reacts to the activity within and reflects the surrounding urban context. The design of the facades skin manifests in three dimensional terms of the sounds represented by the music we hear. Doing this is instructive to visitors in visualizing the way sound works, and is also a signature treatment for the façade unlike that of any other building.

The bridges connect the new building to the historic King Eddy Hotel, whose roof that project over 4th Street SE frame an urban event space that allows for fluid movement between both sides of the complex on ground level. The bridges also provide a path between each side on the upper levels and function during performances as technical elements containing lights, sound equipment, and other technical components, and from which screens may be lowered for projection purposes. Each surface of the architecture can be used for projections as well, both the King Edward Hotel façade facing 4th street and the façade of the new building. In this sense, the building complex takes on the role as a backdrop, not only for urban activity, but also for performances and motion pictures. The roof level of the hotel also becomes a new vantage point to experience the city and live events below.

The light-filled atrium space in the new museum acts as a reverberation space. The museum’s path often takes visitors through this “experience chamber,” based on notions of echo, delay, reverberation, a space that can be mechanically modified to alter sound and perception. This large chamber reacts to any sound input (human or instrumental sounds, using microphones, or with electronic input) and is able to manipulate these sounds. This element becomes the central structuring node for the overall project, and the path that visitors take through the museum always positions them in some position relative to it.